Indira Phukan
I am a PhD student in the Graduate School of Education and I study how people make decisions about the environment and environmentally-minded behavior. I found that understanding how to teach environmental science is only piece of this puzzle—it is also equally important to understand the environmental science! A joint MS degree in E-IPER allowed me to learn environmental science to a greater depth—in other words, it taught me the “what” while my doctoral degree has taught me the “how” of environmentally-sustainable behavior!
The degree program is extremely flexible and allowed me to explore aspects of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the environmental movements in ways that I would not have otherwise considered. It also exposed me to a new department at Stanford, which widened the range of people, expertise, and departments I was exposed to as a student. The experience has also widened the possibilities for future careers, as I am now able to explore job opportunities in both the fields of education and environmental science.